Anna Lee Beard

Anna first started dancing somewhere about age four in her Wonder Woman underoos and that, as they say, was that. She began pursuing dance in earnest at age seven, training intensely in studios before earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Michigan in 2003. Along the way, she has danced and trained with a number of different groups, including the Kyrgyz National Ballet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan as well as her own incarnation, AuxWerks. Over her twenty years of teaching, a deep love of technique has allowed her to aid artists in refining movement in everything from aerial circus to flowarts, giving her students a strong foundation in a way that is both fun and rewarding. In recent history, her focus has been on instructing adults exclusively as she wants to change perceptions about learning dance at any age, plus they find swearing much more acceptable and entertaining. Digging into the whys and wherefores of teaching methods have driven her to share with those around her (bore to tears?) with her enthusiastic talks about the pedagogy of movement more often than not with wild arm gestures to accompany. Anna’s recent interest (read as obsession) with sword fighting has inspired her to draw comparisons between the teaching of dance and the teaching of swords. Her workshops have been facilitated at events such as Purpleheart Open, Swordsquatch, and SoCal Swordfight as well as teaching regularly at Austin Historical Weapons Guild where she is a co-owner. She has also been featured on the Modern Rogue YouTube series for Renaissance dance, messer technique, and Dance Assasins (aka Ballet). Anna resides in Austin with her husband, two kids, and a trio of pets where she will talk about dance history or the glory of Meyer to anyone who will listen.